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Location: Augusta, GA | Hi everybody,
I'm looking to buy a Home/Computer recording software package such as Cakewalk. Does anyone have recomendations...I'm looking for something that won't brake my bank, that will be reasonably easy to use, and that makes a decent recording---any help?
Thanks,
Jake
'79 Baladeer
'01 Baladeer Special
'98 Ernie Ball Music Man Custom Axis Sport
'96 Rivera R5512 |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | I use Cakewalk Sonar which is very nice, but they make a less expensive version called Calewalk Home Studio for about $140. that has great capabilities for the money. Check out their website. I think you may even be able to download a trial version. Dave |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I use Sonar professionally. I have been useing Cakewalk since it was a DOS program years ago. I highly recommend it. As someone already posted there are "lite" versions for home users which have pretty much the same features as the pro versions just scaled down to number of tracks and such, but plenty for any decent project. Also, if you ever take the plunge and upgrade, the file formats are the same. |
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Location: Augusta, GA | Cool...how do the recodings sound? |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Sadly, the recordings only sound as good as the input. Yeah, you can do a lot of "fix and mix", but I'm always limited by raw talent. Dave |
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Location: NJ | digidesign |
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Location: Augusta, GA | What is digidesign? |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | If you are using a MAC, Digidesign Pro Tools is a cool suite that comes with the hardware also. It was an industry standard for a long time in the MAC world. I think there may be a stand-alone lite version of the software that works in Windows, but it's hard to tell from the website.
http://www.digidesign.com/ |
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Location: closely held secret | It's also noticably more expensive than Cakewalk Home Studio.
How much is your budget? |
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Location: Midland, MI | +1 on Cakewalk (Pro version here, although I'm a rev behind...on purpose).
Cakewalk GuitarTracks (I think that's the name) is also interesting, but IIRC couldn't do all that I wanted. Might check that out, too, although it's not strictly a 'home recording' suite on the level of Sonar, Cubase, etc. |
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Location: closely held secret | Here's a link to a great board for all things home studio. Lots of pros post on it, you'll find more advice than you ever knew you wanted, on software, hardware, gear setup, whatever. |
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Location: Augusta, GA | Got it...My budget is under $200 for this. I'm computer savvy in other areas, but I don't know anything about home recording programs. I'm looking for the best combination of: ease of use, quality, value. Can you record vocals on these programs, also? If so, how do the vocals come out? |
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Location: Orlando, FL | If you use a Mac, try GarageBand. It's not in the same class as ProTools, but I got it recently and it seems to do a lot and has some nice features.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
Only $99. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | You might also look at Riffworks from Line6. Pretty cool with nice features for under $100.
I personally use Cubase, Cakewalk, and Reason depending on what I am trying to accomplish.
Like Dave said....rubbish in rubbish out. No program can fix a crappy recording....and I have many examples of crappy I can send you as proof! |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | I always Liked Cooledit Pro. The 2nd updated version was a better version to work with in Multi-trac configuration. They were bought out by adobe and the product is now sold as adobe audition.I have alot of Producer Friends that use it for Radio Production Too. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Ya know, I'll tip the derby to CoolEdit Pro also. I never used it much for recording, but as I recall they had some great simple/easy to use effects for noise reduction. Now I use Sound Forge for any straight audio work like that, but I remember CoolEdit really living up to its name. |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | Country Artist Blake Shelton recorded his CD exclusively using Cooledit Pro. a friend of mine says it works best using afew other software programs along with it like T-racks. He says it really warms up the the recorded material. |
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Location: Augusta, GA | anyone know about how much $$$ for this Cooledit Pro program? |
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Location: closely held secret | It's not available anymore. It's now Adobe Audition, and they gutted it, IMHO. |
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Location: Scotland | I'd second Garageband. Comes free with all new Macs and got me started recording some of my better efforts ( which unfortunately aren't much better than my poor efforts). As far as I can tell it has just about everything for someone starting off and I've found the learning curve pretty easy so far. Like the idea of having it on a laptop so I can take it with me round to friends' houses when we jam as well. |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | I played with The adobe Audition program adn it's Identical to Version2 Of Cool edit Pro. They added a few things but it basically works the same.
Jake, I shot you an email. |
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Location: Augusta, GA | Cool..Thanks Steve. Jim, I'm guessing that they don't make Garageband in a windows version? |
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Location: closely held secret | OOps, sorry, scratch that last post of mine - was thinking of a different package.
Adobe Audition sells at about $299.
If you just want to get your feet wet with audio recording, try Powertracks . It's actually the first program I started out with (use Cubase & Acid now), but for $49 it really has a lot of features.
Basic Cakewalk Home Studio is good, too, at $150, tho for $229 you get a lot of additional effect plus the Dyad sampler. |
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Location: NJ | I'm considering getting into this as well . . .
What're some of the minimum BASIC hardware requirements (PC) you guys'd recommend? |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Mac. |
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Location: closely held secret | Well, yer gonna hafta upgrade that 286 to start with...
Seriously, what do you have now? |
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Location: closely held secret | No, BB. A Mac is not a 'minimum BASIC hardware requirement'. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Oh. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | For home recording, just about any PC on the market today will handle it. Get the most machine you can afford. The important stuff is memory, and 7600+ rpm drives, CD/R burner and a nice sound card. MAC used to be the defacto standard for recording and graphics, but doesn't seem to be anymore. I find the tools I want to use are not always available for the MAC, so I've not gone that way. Again for home recording, either is fine and you should be able to get professional sounding results. |
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Location: closely held secret | Don't get a Soundblaster card for recording. While they are good for output, they're not made for recording. If you can still find one, the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 is a great value for $100. A small 4-6 channel mixer will be very helpful as well, as the 24/96 only has 2 analog inputs. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Waskel;
I have a Soundblaster Audigy Platinum 2 similar to the on pictured below but is the previous version. Why is this card not good for recording?
I use it with Magix Audio Studio 7...have you or anyone else here used this sofware?
Wayne
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Location: closely held secret | Yes, Wayne, I've tried Magix. Don't really have anything against it, just after using some other apps it felt lacking in features and workflow.
IMHO,
Creative's products are great if you're a gamer, watch movies, listen to mp3's...
Not if you are serious about recording music. Creative's products are consumer-level, no matter what the specs say. They've never been designed to be up to audiophile (studio) specs - not even the Audigy 2.
Check out this board . They have tons of advice and recommendations from people who use all kinds of recording equipment.
These are just my opinions. But I used to think all that noise was just because I was doing 'home' recording. It went away with my Creative sound card. |
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Location: Orlando, Florida | Hey Guys...
Just to put my two cents in, I use Magix Music Studio 2004 Deluxe, and it's great. The deluxe version allows you to burn your projects directly to CD from inside the program. I've been using it since version 5 and it works. It gives alot of control and you can preview effects/filters on the fly with rendering them first. Another great program for audio and video editing is Multiquence. It's a shareware program from the guy who wrote the Gold Wave audio editing program. Here's the link, if you're interested:
http://www.goldwave.com/mqfeatures.php
Joe |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Although the Creative Labs stuff is not studio quality, if you are just looking to dabble in home recording it's just fine. After you get used to recording, you may find you want to upgrade for a variety of reasons and you will be in better shape to make that decision. In some cases you can leave the Blaster in the PC and just add a new card to it. I used to do this becuase the Creative Labs card had a lot of digital i/o and midi options that worked great, and also so I didn't have to fire up my whole studio just to play CD.
Another note on software, is the best software is the one you know how to use. Lets face it, unlike recorders of any kind, whatever software you get is using the same device to record and playback, e.g. your PC. So if you are starting out, just get something that "speaks" to you and seems friendly and easy to use. All of the packages do "record" just about the same. Once you get into mixing, bouncing, plugins, effects, mastering etc etc etc, you'll be well versed enough to move up, or not. Lot of songwriters amatuer and professional, just need something to lay down the tracks. You don't need Pro Tools or Sonar to do that. Of course, you may find you have a knack, and really like what you hear, well then you know the direction to go. |
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Location: East Tennessee | I have used Cakewalk Home Studio. I found it fairly user friendly
but as stephent28 has posted:
Like Dave said....rubbish in rubbish out. No program can fix a crappy recording....and I have many examples of crappy I can send you as proof!
:D |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Waskel, Miles;
I do like the usability of the Magix 7 software...no problems there as long as the sound is ok.
As for the card, is there anything out there that gives studio quality recordings but has the front panel access like the Creative Audigy? Or, can I use the Audigy front panel with an upgraded card from another manufacturer?
Wayne |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Wayne,
Tascam has a stand alone unit that is really nice for about $250 (or less on ebay). The quality is excellent, latency is low, and it is really compact and easy to move about. Highly recommended!
I used to have one but moved up to the MOTU 828MK2. Overkill, but I am an equipment slut when it comes to tinkering with my hobbies! |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I'm not really up on consumer audio cards. I am pretty sure the Creative Labs front end unit only works with a Creative Labs board. I use the Layla. It is a rackmount. It has 8 tracks in and out and fiber for going to DAT or even ADAT and is a nice midi i/o. I can also chain additional ones if I want more tracks. |
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| I've been recording at home for years. I used Power Tracks Pro on PC's and it's only $49 from pgmusic.com I know other guys who prefer Cakewalk or even Cubase. I switched to a Mac last summer and Garage Band does some wonderful things. I even use the free Sound Studio on all new Macs for my professional voice overs which I cut at home.
Here's what you must understand about pro results at home. The interface to get audio into the computer is CRITICAL in getting a great sound. I use a FireWire Solo interface from M-Audio and it sounds fantastic. If you use a mic for guitar or voice, be sure it's a large or small diaphram condenser of good quality. I use a Marshall V57M I got at MARS years ago for $99 and it's fine. If you use good performing techniques with good gear, you can get pro results at home. Good luck! |
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Location: closely held secret | Wayne, as Miles said, if your software 'works' for you, has the features you want, and you're happy with the results, that's all that matters.
But, I do respectfully disagree with Miles on one point: all recording software, while it may use the same hardware, does not 'record' the same. They use different techniques, algorithyms, cpu utilization. Some struggle to playback 5 or 6 tracks while recording another, some can effortlessly handle 15 or 20. Some allow you to use ASIO, some don't. Some let you achieve higher sample rates than others. These are some of the main differences between 'consumer' software and 'pro'software.
Like T28, I'm a hardware junky. I used a AP24/96 for 3 years, just moved up to an M-audio Firewire 1814 (18 in 14 out). I can also use this on my laptop for mobile recording. M-audio, Echo, E-MU all make good affordable cards, if your looking for a pci solution. Echo Layla and Gina have nice up-front interfaces.
There's lots of good opinions out here. The best combination of software and hardware is the one that lets you record your music with the highest quality and lowest frustration level!!!
Music should be fun!! :D |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | What Waskel has added is very correct. My point was unlike hardware devices that have different setups, menus and such, most software, the PLAY and RECORD clicks work about the same. "The best combination of software and hardware is the one that lets you record your music with the highest quality and lowest frustration level!!! " You can really go numbers crazy. If you don't plan on much editing, and you're only recording yourself, a 20 bit or even 16 bit card that only records two tracks at once is fine. (remember CD's are still only 16 bit) Of course if you are going to do lots of layering, effects, multiple instruments etc... Being able to record 16 tracks at 24 even 96 bits might be the way to go.
I would start simple and cheap, and you will soon be able to establish the direction. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Thanks gus, lots of good info.
Can the stand alone units(such as the Tascam mentioned above) be used in conjunction with a PC? I really like being able to use a monitor for editing and whatnot. I have no need for mobility and usually record things one track at a time.
Wayne |
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Location: closely held secret | Well, as far as I know, you can d/l your tracks to PC. But then you still need editing/sequencing software. If you don't need mobility you might as well invest the money in software and hardware. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I'm not sure of which TASCAM or other models, but there are some units that have a pc interface that allows editing on the unit, but via a pc interface. Also some of the Roland and others can be dirct accessed from a pc, just like any other hard disc.
Sorry I haven't done much research on this, but I have seen the demo's at NAMM. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | The Tascam unit connects to the PC via the USB. Comes complete with the usual scaled down recording software. Very complete and versitle package for the price. Got rave reviews when it came out about a year and half ago.
Tascam US122 |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | I am reading this with great interest because my grandson loaned me a Fostex MR-8 so I can record some stuff. I have perused the manual and I have some good mikes and all kinds of instrument interfaces. What I seem to lack is the adventurous spirit to plug in another piece of equipment and subject myself to electronic humiliation as the machine chews up my hours of effort and my poor canines lose all respect because of the noise level. The Fostex seems to have a good USB output to my computer.
Has anybody used this for recording?
Bailey |
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Location: closely held secret | I haven't used the MR-8, but I almost bought one, so I've read up on them. I believe the USB is only for wav output to a computer or cd burner. So unless you have an audio editor (Sound Forge, WaveLab or whatever) you have to do all your editing and effects on the portable.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, if it allows you to do all you need or want.
Miles, I wasn't aware that there were units out there you could access from a pc for anything but transfer... it's about time!! |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Waskel
I think you are right, the USB is just for transferring without having editing programs on my computer. My grandson and his dad have hundreds of dollars worth of recording software on their computers so I gues I could have them show me how to edit whatever I record. The MR-8 seems to have many features as stand alone, as soon as I get time I'm going to try it out.
Bailey |
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Home Recording Software